Nongalvanic Generic Packaging Solution Demonstrated in a Fully Integrated D-Band Receiver
Journal article, 2020

This article presents a packaging technique for monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) demonstrated in a fully integrated receiver (Rx) module at the D -band (110–170 GHz). The solution consists of an MMIC-to-waveguide transition realized using an on-chip probe mounted in the E -plane of a split-block waveguide module. An artificial magnetic conductor structure is implemented to suppress cavity modes and achieve better coupling from the waveguide to the probe. The transition's performance is experimentally verified using a back-to-back test chip, and measurement results show that the proposed packaging solution achieves a low insertion loss of only 0.7 dB and covers a very wide frequency range extending from 105 to 175 GHz. The proposed transition is also integrated with an in-phase/quadrature-phase (I/Q) Rx on the same chip. The Rx is realized in a 250-nm indium phosphide double heterojunction bipolar transistor technology and consists of a low-noise amplifier, an I/Q mixer, and a frequency tripler. Measurement results show that the Rx module achieves an average conversion gain of 23 dB across the frequency range of 110–145 GHz and has an average noise figure of 10.6 dB. The Rx MMIC has a dc power consumption of 440 mW and occupies an area of 1.6 × 1.6 mm 2 . This article addresses one of the main challenges in systems operating above 100 GHz and presents a fully integrated packaging solution that suits large integrated circuits and does not require any galvanic contacts nor impose any limitations on MMIC dimensions.

d-band

DHBT

waveguide transition

receiver

InP

Author

Ahmed Adel Hassona

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Microwave Electronics

Vessen Vassilev

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Microwave Electronics

Ashraf Uz Zaman

Chalmers, Electrical Engineering, Communication, Antennas and Optical Networks

Yu Yan

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Microwave Electronics

Sining An

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Microwave Electronics

Zhongxia Simon He

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Microwave Electronics

Omid Habibpour

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Microwave Electronics

Sona Carpenter

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Microwave Electronics

Mingquang Bao

Ericsson

Herbert Zirath

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Microwave Electronics

IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology

2156-342X (ISSN) 21563446 (eISSN)

Vol. 10 3 321-330 8986677

Subject Categories

Other Physics Topics

Signal Processing

Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

DOI

10.1109/TTHZ.2020.2972362

More information

Latest update

5/20/2020